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Tandy TRS-80 – Olympic Decathlon

This game was created by Timothy W. Smith and published by Microsoft in 1980.
It consists of ten (deca) olympic sport challenges like running, jumping and throwing things.

Now, the running games like 100 m, 400m, 1500 m and Hurdles are fairly easy. You just mash the 1 and 2 buttons as fast as possible.Javelin (spear) is also no biggie. Run fast, aim up and press enter.
Every other discipline is a pain in the a*ss.High Jump and Pole Jump are way too complicated (for me) and need quick reactions. Running at the perfect speed, stopping at the right moment and jumping a nanosecond later…no way.
The lacking instructions and stuttering gameplay on more “graphic intensive” sports aren’t helping either.

Which brings me to a big plus. The game looks great. Your character is well animated. This shows especially in Shot Put, where you get a close-up. Some might say it looks dorky (it does), but I really like it. Microsoft put real effort into this.

Olympic Decathlon was made for multiplayer. You can compete with up to six friends and laugh at who fails the most miserably. I’d assume it’s a lot of fun. But since I don’t have friends at hand, I had to play by myself and was still entertained. Give it a shot!